Day 56. Muir Pass

23 miles
831 to 854
6/4/14

Muir Pass was endlessly long, and covered in thick snow.  Arizona and I started the day hiking with Red, who is a great guy and really helped us in routefinding. It was hard to figure out where to go because the trail was covered in snow. Red taught us to guess where the trail was by thinking about where they would build the trail given the terrain. That was a great way to look at the problem of routefinding, and helpful for supplementing our maps.  We were all thrilled to reach the summit and see the rock shelter up there.

Muir Hut.

After the pass, the lakes were absolutely stunning- partially frozen over, sky blue, and there was snow as far as the eye could see.  It was otherworldly and vast- a land of rock and ice and snow.  Totally unbelievable!



Endless snow and rock.  No trees in sight.  So beautiful!

We couldn't linger long though.  The risk of postholing in the afternoon kept us pushing ourselves. We saw one guy with a huge gash in his leg from postholing onto a rock. Blood was running down his leg and he looked to be in shock.  Scary!

I landed wrong on my foot today at some point and injured it. It took everything in me to keep going through the pain. I was ok on the uphills, but I hobbled on the downhills. Since I had to change my stride, I got bad blisters on my heel and side of my foot. I really had to push myself to get all the miles we needed to do to set up for the next pass tomorrow. So exhausting! I know we hiked through some gorgeous scenery, but I missed most of it because I was looking down at the trail trying not to step funny on my foot. Ugh!

Trying to keep up with Arizona as we passed gorgeous ice-covered lakes.

I was relieved to finally set up camp in a grove of aspen.  What a long day!

Exhausted upon arriving to camp.